Objective To investigate the preventive and therapeutic effect of Bushen Jiedu prescription on ionizing radiation induced sex hormone disorder.Methods Totally 72 adult rats with half male and half female were randonly divided into 6 groups,including control group,radiation group,Bushen Jiedu prescription group with male and female,with 12 rats in each group.After adaptive breeding for 2 d,the rats of Bushen Jiedu prescription group were given 0.2 ml water soluble granules of Bushen Jiedu prescription (1.38 g/ml) by gavage once a day for 10 days.At 11 d,the rats were irradiated by 5 Gy of 60Co γ-rays.24 h after radiation,6 rats in each group were executed to measure the level of sex hormone.The other rats were further gavaged with Bushen Jiedu prescription or its control once a day for 14 d,then were executed for sex hormone testing.Results At 1 d after radiation,the estrogen (E2) of female of Bushen Jiedu prescription group was significantly higher than that of radiation group (t =2.686,P ＜ 0.01).Compared with control group,the levels of follicule-stimulating hormone (FSH) (t =4.305,4.642,P ＜0.01) of male and female,the levels of luteinizing hormone (LH) of male radiation group,and Bushen Jiedu prescription group were increased (t =4.537,2.336,P ＜ 0.01).At 14 d after radiation,the levels of testosterone and luteinizing hormone in male rats of radiation group was higher than those in control group (t =-3.730,2.963,P ＜ 0.05),and the levels of E2 and progesterone of female was lower than those in control group (t =-5.424,-3.178,-2.690,-3.215,P＜0.01).Conclusions Ionizing radiation can induced sex hormone disorder,and Bushen Jiedu prescription can effectively inhibit this alteration,which indicates that Bushen Jiedu prescription is an ideal radiation protectant.